Attitudes of Learners, NESTs, & Korean NNESTs toward Teaching English in English (TEE) in Korea

This paper analyzes the attitudes of primaIy school and secondary school Korean non-native English-speaking teachers (K-NNESTs), native English-speaking teachers (NEST ), and Korean learners of English toward the Korean government's Teaching English in English (TEE) policy. Specificall ,thi paper seeks to find which type of instruction is most preferred among all respondents. In addition, this paper seeks to ascertain what obstacles impede the use of English as the language of instruction in English classrooms in Korea and to make recommendations as to how to overcome these obstacles. A total of 139 teachers and 705 learners responded to a paper-based questionnaire concerning their attitudes toward TEE and any difficulties they encountered in its use. Team teaching between K- NNEST and NE Ts was reported by all three groups of respondents to be the most preferred method of English instruction in Korea. From the teachers' perspective, the language barrier was reported to be the biggest obstacle, however nearly 80% of learners self-reported that they understood at least 50% and up to 100% of English lessons given in English. This finding prompted the conclusion that language alone cannot be the largest obstacle toward TEE in Korea; therefore, training both K-NNESTs and NESTs in effective team-teaching techniques is required. In addition, the students themselves must be trained or at least briefed on what is expected of them in team-taught classrooms.